A Few Sheep Shy of a Farm

Happy Halloween!

What a beautiful fall day we are having, its so nice to see good weather for All Hallow’s Eve for a change. The kids will be out in droves tonight!

We had a wonderful night at Spinning last night, there were so many people! It really is such fun when there is a full house! We also had a great surprise, one of our own, J announced she is expecting their first child!!!! You could almost see the wheels turning on what baby projects to start! I know I already have a few ideas . . .

I haven’t done any spinning on the new wheel in days, but as this is Friday, I have high hopes of doing some tonight. I have a merino/silk blend in a lovely silvery color that I want to practice my lace weight spinning on. I need to get up to speed with that before I start the yarn for Mom’s shawl, which will be my biggest spinning challenge to date, both in scale and difficulty . . . though I may not need 2 lbs of yarn to do a lace shawl Perhaps I’ll make her some matching socks for her birthday?

Have a great weekend!

Welcome to my new Fall look!

Even though it is rather warm today here in Cambridge, it is definately Fall. The leaves are pouring off the trees and the lawn outside my window here at work is covered with the most wonderful fall colors. This has inspired me to update the blogs appearance to match the season! I only wish I had a camera so I could take a picture of the beautiful colors here! Oh well, perhaps next year, right?

Last night didn’t lead to any spinning, though I did do a couple of rows on my current scarf project. I’m using the blue/green handspun to do a scarf that will be knit 1/2 lengthwise in garter stitch and then the stitches on the short edge will be picked up and the other half knit width wise to give ridges going 1 direction on 1 half and the other direction on the other half. Just something to play around with . . .

DH decided to try to recreate the pizza we had in Italy last night for dinner. Unfortunately, he started at 5:00 so it was rather late by the time we ate! It isn’t quite the same but he is on the right track. Guess I’ll just have to suffer through while he practices Don’t you feel sorry for me?

Tonight I’m off to spinning for the first time in over a month! I only wish I could bring my NEW WHEEL with me for show and tell! Unfortunately, she gets car sick and therefore must stay home. Speaking of which, she really does need a name . . . I am bringing a few samples of what I’ve spun so far with her to group and my trusty Joy will be coming along for the ride. She hasn’t had any attenion in quite a while . . . . perhaps I’ll even do some spinning!

Back to work . . . .

In fiber news:

I’ve been doing some spinning on the new wheel to get a feel for it before I try anything specific. I have found that since I can spin a much finer yarn I really am going to need a tensioned lazy kate in order to ply well. Winding to the ball winder leaves too much opportunity for it to become tangled or to break (or for the cat to jump out of nowhere and grab it!)

Once I get the hang of this wheel a bit more then I’m going to start spinning my Mom’s shawl yarn. The shawl is her holiday gift this year, however it won’t be done by then, and she know it. I hope to have a few skeins of the yarn ready to present to her, but its unlikely I’ll have more than that . . .

I’m also evaluating where I stand with the holiday knitting. I have a few things done and I made progress on at least one more while on the trip. There are still a few I haven’t started yet and now I’m seriously running out of time!

I’m most of the way done brushing out and plucking Blossom. She was in quite a tangle from while I was away. Apparently they gave A a hard time and she wasn’t comfortable trying to get them out on her own. I do wish she had told me, I could have probably arranged to have someone else give it a try once or twice while I was gone. . . . guess next time we’ll make a different plan for them.

I have my packet for the upcoming retreat and I have to begin working on packing soon. I may need a 2nd piece of luggage just for the skeins and samples etc. that I’ll need to bring! I’m going to try to weed it down to just the essentials so I won’t have too much. Afterall, If I can go all the way to Italy for 3 weeks with a small suitcase and a small backpack I should be able to go to Virginia for a weekend with even less, right?

Non-Fiber new:

We are thinking about the holidays and what to do for them this year. We are likely having Thanksgiving out this year with my Mom and Step-father and my Aunt and possibly some friends. For Christmas we are considering going away for a couple on nights alone together. We haven’t had a Christmas on our own yet and given the chaos that the holidays normally bring it might be nice if we could just be on our own this year . . . we shall see.

Well, its a lovely rainy day here in Cambridge and I actually do have some work that needs doing . . . I wish I had a camera so I could post pictures, but it may be a while before that happens again. If I have a chance to borrow one somewhere I’ll do that and get a bunch of pics out at once .. . .

have a great Wednesday!

Okay, the new wheel has been waxed and assembled and I’ve started spinning on it! I can’t even tell you what a difference their is! The best analogy I came up with is that its like going from driving my current car (a dodge shadow) to driving a Ferrari! Yup, its that wonderful. I’ve donly done a little bit so far, but the potential for this wheel is amazing, it has already improved my spinning just in the little bit I did and the range it is capable of . . . . I may never buy yarn again!

Okay, so that is a bit of an exageration, I’ll still buy yarn, but probably not as much since I can spin my own on this wheel!

Back to spinning, more reports later, if I still had a camera I’d add photos but it will have to wait until we get a new one . . .

IT’S HERE! MY NEW WHEEL HAS ARRIVED!!!!

Right this minute it is in my car waiting for

our drive to home depot for extra fine sandpaper and wood wax! I only have to

wait about 25 more minutes before I can go get the stuff to finish it! Then

I just have to get that done before I can put it together! I can’t wait to get

to spin!!!! More updates once its assembled!!!